The Urban Dictionary Mug

A word thought to describe someone who obsesses over videogames but was actually a term used earlier by Ken Nordine, the spoken-word story-telling Jazz musician in his song "The Vidiot" to describe someone who obsesses over television. This term was used before it was applied to games but has now become most popularly associated with them.

Person1 (to Person2): How many hours do you spend a day watching television?"

The Urban Dictionary Mug

Anyone who would rather spend endless hours in front of a SCREEN; wether it be a computer, HD televison, or your regular 19 inch console in the bedroom. Vidiots may or may not also participate in other related activities, such as watching DVD's, video games (any console) or even massive online role-playing games. Persons subject to this malady will often lack sleep and 3 square meals per day in the persuit of becoming the ultimate vidiot.

We wanted to have a nice vacation; we rented a cabin so we could fish and hike. Tom, however, did not want to go: he had gotten to level 24 and had to help his friendsbeat a monster in the dungeon.
What a vidiot.

The Urban Dictionary Mug

Vidiot (vĭd’ ē-ət) n. a person who is preoccupied with creating videos of people or animals in the act of performing in a below-average intelligent manner; the action(s) are typically so low on the intellectual scale that, when viewing, it evokes a response of laughter

While this definition is complete and explains what a vidiot is, it is important to point out that vidiots may and can be individuals with various degrees of intelligence and educational levels, and they are people who come from any social and economical background in life. Even though the vidiot may be the subject of the video and may appear to be stupid, he or she may, in fact, be highly intelligent and educated and may not be an idiot in real life.

This type of humor as a form of entertainment became formal towards the end of the nineteenth century when, in 1895 to 1900, the term slapstick first made its way into the World English Dictionary.

Clowning, including the form used as a court jester bears record in history as early as 2500 B.C. during Egypt’s Fifth Dynasty in the court of Pharaoh Dadkeri-Assi.

Today, cell phones that make it easy for anyone to take home videos at any given moment…

The successful vidiot finds, discovers, or creates new situations or old situations with a twist or a different outcome. People like surprises and, when a video takes them in a different direction than what they expected, they receive entertainment, a commodity they can never trade short.